How to Start a Business

I wrote a couple days ago about restaurant owners and how important it is that they collect e-mail addresses.  I wanted to go into a bit more detail and stress again the importance of collecting e-mail addresses.  Time for some marketing from The Entrepreneur School!

E-mail is the single most cost effective marketing tool available today.  And, the most effective.  Back to our argument on the value of Twitter, sending a Tweet is like shooting a shotgun in the air and trying to hit a customer.  Whereas people that give you their e-mail address are certified as interested in your product.

What to send in your e-letter?  Most importantly, try to include something of value, that the reader can only find on your e-letters.  If you own a restaurant, the e-letters should contain special online only coupons and recipes.  If you are a consultant, industry stats and updates would be valuable.  If you are a Christian retailer, recent sermons and links to good videos would be good content.  Your e-letter must contain more than just self-promotional ads!  So, some ideas:

1.  Industry updates
2.  Your new products and services
3.  Coupons or deals
4.  Testimonials from happy customers
5.  Photos of cool stuff
6.  Q&A
7.  Price comparisons
8.  Future speaking opportunities
9.  Offers to pass to friends
10.  Charity activities of your customers 

and 11. JOKES.  People love to read jokes!

And finally, how to manage all your e-mail addresses?  Constant Contact is our first choice, found at www.ConstantContact.com.  It is a great tool for managing the 1000′s of addresses you have and for creating e-letters.

Related posts:

1. Constant Contact E-mail Management Solution Special Offer!
2. Constant Contact Email Marketing Series
3. Constant Contact Series: List Importing and Our Initial Experience
4. Time Management
5. Google Link Building Strategies Reviewed

2 Comments

1.   knightsbridge business sales   |  Monday, 05 October 2009 at 10:28 pm

   Actually I get it what I was finding from last few days you have mentioned really good and important things in your blog.
   Tia SMith

   
2.   The Entrepreneur School Blog   |  Monday, 08 March 2010 at 2:48 pm

   [...] Email Management and E-Letters [...]